Popular Stories

Pittsburgh Penguins' Sidney Crosby (left) listens as Don Fehr, executive director for the National Hockey League Players Associations, peaks to reporters, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012 in New York. Talks in the NHL labor fight broke down after just one hour Thursday night, and it isn't known when the league and the players' association would get back together. (Mary Altaffer/AP)

As expected, the NHL Players’ Association voted overwhelming in favor of asking its executive board to file a “disclaimer of interest,” a move that would disband the union and enable it to file an anti-trust lawsuit that claims the league’s lockout is illegal.

The players’ executive board has until Jan. 2 to file the claim.

Maybe it will be filed. Or maybe the vote, which started Sunday and ended Friday, was just an attempt to back the NHL into a negotiating corner.

Friday was the 97th day of the lockout, and the sides haven’t met in nine days.

That doesn’t mean the NHL hasn’t been busy. In a preemptive strike last week, it filed a complaint in federal court, asking that the lockout be declared legal. The league also filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board.

The players’ union has until Jan. 7 to respond to the complaint, which was filed in New York.

The league has canceled nearly 51 percent of the season, wiping out games though Jan. 14. The NHL had its entire season canceled by a labor dispute in 2004-05.

During last year’s NBA lockout, players filed a disclaimer of interest but had a new collective bargaining agreement 12 days later, and the union quickly reformed.

NHL owners want a 10-year CBA and a five-year maximum on individual contracts _ seven years if a team re-signs its own player. The players want an eight-year CBA and eight-year maximums on player pacts.

There are also issues over the salary-cap ceiling and whether to include amnesty buyouts, which would free teams from counting a player’s salary (read: a bad signing) against the cap.